Clinical Grants

The American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH) and the American Foundation for Surgery of the Hand (AFSH) have established grant funding to encourage young investigators to perform clinical research studies. Our goal is to enable investigators to initiate pilot projects that will lead to subsequent funding from other sources such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The AFSH is committed to excellence in clinical research while maintaining the highest academic integrity and fiscal responsibility.

About Clinical Research Grants

These grants function similarly to the NIH Exploratory & Developmental Research Grant Program (R21). The R21 grant mechanism is intended to encourage exploratory or developmental research by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of project development.

The deadline to apply for a 2017 Basic Science grant is April 3, 2017.

Apply

Eligibility

All applications are welcome but need to have an ASSH Active member as the principal investigator co-investigator or sponsor.

Members of the Research Management Committee including the Chair and Research Division Director cannot apply for funding either as a principle investigator co-investigator or mentor/sponsor.

There is no limit on the number of applications submitted from each institution but please note that a maximum of (1) Basic Science and (1) Clinical Research Grant may awarded per institution in a calendar year.

PI may only submit one Clinical Research and Basic Science grant application per calendar year.

Resubmissions are allowed.

Submission Process - April 3 Deadline

The grant application closely mimics the NIH grant format. This is to encourage familiarity with the grant application of the NIH for further funding. All applicants will receive blinded critiques from the Research Management Committee Study Section so that future revisions will be more competitive for extramural funding.

Prior to submitting your application please be sure your ASSH user record is up-to-date. Login here. If you do not have an ASSH record you will be prompted to create an account.

Letter of Support: This should come from your Department Chair or Division Head. The purpose of this letter is to verify that the researcher will have time and resources to complete the project in a timely fashion.

4. Complete the 2017 Clinical Grant contact form where you will upload your NIH-style application and supporting documents. All materials must be submitted by 11:59 PM CST on Monday, April 3, 2017.

Submit any questions by email to afsh@assh.org. Applicants will be informed of their application status by August 2017. Promising applicants will be asked to prepare an NIH-style one-page response to reviewer critiques prior to any funding decisions.

Follow-Up Reporting

Investigators receiving grants are expected to make six month progress reports in addition to a final report once the two-year term of the grant has expired. If more time is needed to complete the study the investigator may request a no-cost grant extension. A final report including a listing of all presentation and publications resulting from the project must be submitted 36 months after receipt of funds. All funds not used in the study should be returned to the American Foundation for Surgery of the Hand.

Note: requests for no-cost grant extensions must include progress report reason for extension and date to which they are requesting the extension (up to one year after original grant end date). The Research Management Committee Chair determines whether to grant the extension.

Publication and Further Funding

Awardees are required to submit resulting manuscripts to The Journal of Hand Surgery (JHS) and to present their work if possible at the ASSH Annual Meeting. All submissions to JHS resulting from this requirement will be carefully considered for publication and both the authors and editors will maintain the right of refusal if they feel the submission is not suitable for JHS. In the case of publication presenting or citing research funding credit is to be noted by footnote that the project was supported totally or partially by funds from the American Foundation for Surgery of the Hand. It is requested that a reprint of such publications be made available to the AFSH for permanent record.

Projects that receive further funding from other resources should report back to the AFSH.

Clinical Research and Grantsmanship Committee

All clinical grant applicants will have the opportunity to be matched with a mentor from the ASSH Clinical Research and Grantsmanship Committee (CRGC). Your mentor will periodically check-in with you to review your progress discuss challenges and help you secure additional funding. Those who receive an AFSH funded grant will be asked to join the CRGC upon the conclusion of their grant year to help be a mentor for future awardees.

Questions?

Selection Process

The selection of the research proposals for funding is made by the Research Management Committee (RMC) with the approval of the ASSH Council and AFSH Board of Trustees. Selection is based on the merits of the proposal with preference given to new projects for which the grant could serve as seed money for larger grants from the NIH or OREF. Proposals that have already been funded from other sources will not be considered. Awards are made to universities, medical schools, research institutions, or individuals. Grants may be used for salaries of technical and professional assistants, purchase of supplies, or minor pieces of equipment. Grants may not support the personal compensation of investigators, travel or conferences, publication costs, the payment of hospital care for patients under study, the purchase of major pieces of equipment, or any overhead expenses.

In the past, funding has been provided for a range of subjects, including microvascular, tendons, nerves, artificial joints, tissue engineering, biomechanics, rehabilitation, and other related subjects.

RMC Review Policies

Reviews are based on the five NIH criteria: Investigators, Environment, Significance, Approach and Innovation.

A minimum of 3 reviewers score and review each grant application.

RMC members, including the Chair and Research Division Director do not review nor participate in discussions regarding grant submissions from their institutions.

The use of ad hoc reviewers, may be called upon if institutional conflicts of interest makes the fair evaluation of a submission difficult.

Funding Policies

Only one basic science and one clinical research grant may be funded per institution per calendar year.

PIs are asked to respond to reviewer comments before funding decisions are made.

Clinical Research recipients are awarded $40,000 total for a two-year grant. $30,000 is awarded at the start of the grant and final $10,000 is disbursed after the progress report has been reviewed and approved by the Research Management Committee.

Tip 4: Your results can be refined by using either the tabs at the top (Video, Articles/WEB, Images, JHS, Products/Vendors), or the filters on the left (Filter by Source, Filter by Format, Filter by Purpose, etc.).

Tip 5: Punctuation can enhance your search as well. Use quotes ("search term") to only include
pages with the same words in the same order. But only use this if you are looking for an exact word or phrase, otherwise you may exclude helpful results. Add an asterisk (search term*) as a placeholder for any unknown or wildcard terms. For example, C*l Tunnel would give you results for Cubital Tunnel and Carpal Tunnel. Place a question mark (search term?) for single-character wildcard matching. For example, pa?ent would give you results for parent, patent, etc. You may also use the plus sign (search + word) between words for words you must have in the results.

Tip 6: We are always trying to improve our search, if you are having any trouble with search please refer to our survey here and we will use your comments to improve our search. You can also watch our search help video.